Trans-Shipment Traffic Jumps At Colombo Port

Trans-shipment throughput in July this year was up 55 per cent compared with the same month last year, a Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) official said. Up to June the monthly increase was about 14 per cent, he adfded.

Trans-shipment is when a vessel discharges cargo at an intermediate port and the goods are loaded into another ship bound for the final destination.

Colombo handled 127,568 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) in July this year against 89,789 TEUs a year earlier. The rise came in trans-shipment, which accounted for 93,269 TEUs against 60,115 TEUs a year earlier, he said.

In August the total number of containers handled rose to nearly 128,000 from 93,646 a year earlier but the breakdown for trans-shipment was not available.

 

An alliance of shipping companies including Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co (P&O), Hapag Lloyd and Neptune Orient Lines, and another alliance of Denmark's Maersk Shipping Line and Sealand Services Inc have pointly promised an offtake of 250,000 TEUs a year, he said.

Post-panamax ships owned by these two alliances began calling at Colombo in June after its access channel and harbour were deepened to accommodate the largest container ships in service, a ports and shipping ministry official said. Post-panamax vessels have a beam wider than the Panama Canal.

Shipping lines broke up a joint service consortium and formed new global alliances earlier this year.

Other shipping lines using Colombo include Evergreen Marine, Lloyds Trestno, Norasia, Mediterranean Shipping Co, Yang Ming and NYK.

Shipping for Sri Lanka's own imports and exports remained stagnant as intensified fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatist rebels depressed the economy, the SLPA official said.

Colombo, which has four container berths with 12 gantry cranes, can handle 1.2 million containers annually right now and plans to r`ise handling capacity to 1.6 million TEUs shortly. The port terminal can hold 32,000 TEUs.

The port expects to install three more gantry cranes, nine yard cranes and more prime movers in the container terminal, the SLPA official said.

Last year Colombo handled just over a million containers, a record. Port officials said 73 per cent of the total cargo was for trans-shipment. Almost 60 per cent of the total tonnage handled at Colombo is containerised cargo.

The total tonnage handled by Colombo rose 8.3 per cent to 14,795,896 tonnes in 1995 from 13,666,167 tonnes in 1994.

Shipping experts said the more modern port of Singapore offered stiff competition for the increased cargo volumes anticipated with the liberalisation of India's economy.

Last year we did 23 per cent of the container traffic out of India, the SLPA official said. This continues to be ours. Of course Singapore is competing very strongly, he added. Eating into Singapore's share is very difficult given our economic situation and security problems, he added.